by Gene Wolfe
Skip’s a fighter, too. I was surprised, on the boat. Skip with a subgun, jumping the rail with the gun in one hand; we used to call them rattlesnakes, those little short-barreled subguns.
I should’ve known. How many battles in court, risking disbarment, risking everything to set some scumbag free? Then blam! He came back to our stinking studio and he’s signed on with Chet Burton. God knows I didn’t know much, but I knew who Chet Burton was, the guy the celebrities went to when it was win or die and blood on the knife in their car.
So he was higher than Johanna, so I rained on his parade. But he was always a fighter.
Old and tired, in the penthouse he’d fixed up for me. Around the world next year, only no next year. So long, buddy. So long, Skip. The way I am now, you’re better off without me.
I’m going on Charlie’s picnic, out of the smoke and the dirt, away from Mick and the bottles behind the bar, and the all the gray faces. I’m going away, and I’m not coming back.
They’ll tell me when you do, and I’ll be there.
CHARACTERS
Note: The most important persons are listed here, with a few of lesser importance. Listings are by the name most often employed in the text. Thus SKIP Webster Grison will be found under “S,” and Captain Richard KAIN under “K.”
ACHILLE A beggar lacking hands.
BORIS The chief researcher at Burton, Grison, and Ibarra.
BRICE, Lt. Gerard Second mate of the Rani.
CHARLES C. Blue CHELLE’s biological father.
CHELLE Sea Blue SKIP’s college sweetheart and contracta. Note that her first name is pronounced “Shell.”
DIANNE Field SUSAN Clerkin’s assistant.
DON Miles, Cpl. A soldier on leave.
FEUER A vice president of Reanimation, Inc.
JANE Sims A physicist.
JOHNSON, Rick One of Mick TOOLEY’s volunteers.
KAIN, Capt. Richard Master of the Rani.
KENT-JERMYN, Sgt. Gerald A soldier on leave.
NAN Olivera Sgt. KENT-JERMYN’s contracta.
OBERDORF, Gary A mechanic on the Rani.
SKIP Webster Grison The managing partner at the law firm of Burton, Grison, and Ibarra.
SORIANO The soldier of fortune employed by Mick TOOLEY to retake the Rani.
SUSAN Clerkin SKIP’s confidential secretary.
TOOLEY, Mick A young attorney at Burton, Grison, and Ibarra.
TRINITY The masseuse on the Rani.
UEDA, Dr. The pediatrician who becomes the Rani’s doctor.
VANESSA Hennessey The woman who meets CHELLE when she returns to Earth. Aboard the Rani she is known as VIRGINIA Healy.
ZYGMUNT A private investigator often called “the Z man.”
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